Although I have never tried final expense direct mail I can't help but feel that they will be less effective than the Medicare Supplement ones.

Since you are going to be basically targeting seniors, I assume, why not get appointed with some supplement companies and sell both final expense and Med Supps. You are going to be contacting those same people anyway.

In my experience they are much more concerned about health than they are life. Get your foot in the door with Med Supp and then sell them final expense.

If you do it right, most of the time you can save them several hundred dollars on their Supplement insurance and then apply those savings to a final expense plan. You make two sales and they end up not spending any more money than they were for their former Med Supp.

That said, buy a list and call. Much more cost effective and productive than doing a mailing where you will only get 1% to 1.5% return.

The vast majority of people who mail the card back are not going to remember filling it out anyway. For that reason I really don't consider a direct mail return card a real "lead". Just a name and phone number on a separate card, same as calling from a list.

Use the information on the card as an opening statement, with some changes to apply to what you are selling, when you call them. It sounds pretty good and may just get their interest long enough for you to start a conversation with them.

Every time I have tried a direct mail piece of anything to seniors it has always been a total waste of time and money in my opinion. I get much better results from a list.

Where are you getting your lists? Are you tailoring them with specific filters? (Age, Rating, etc) If so, what?

I understand the philosophy of getting the 2 in 1 sale. It makes complete sense; they go hand in hand. I've had a few clients recently that I've saved as much as $1000 annually on their med supp, but I didn't go for the FE sale right there, I figured it would be better to ask later, once I prove myself as their agent. I can see how putting it together at the same time would likely be more effective when done properly. One issue I have is that my med supp business and final expense business are generally different companies, so I've been hesitant to try it at once.

Any tips on how you market the dual sale to the client? What seems to work for you best?

Where are you getting your lists? Are you tailoring them with specific filters? (Age, Rating, etc) If so, what?

I understand the philosophy of getting the 2 in 1 sale. It makes complete sense; they go hand in hand. I've had a few clients recently that I've saved as much as $1000 annually on their med supp, but I didn't go for the FE sale right there, I figured it would be better to ask later, once I prove myself as their agent. I can see how putting it together at the same time would likely be more effective when done properly. One issue I have is that my med supp business and final expense business are generally different companies, so I've been hesitant to try it at once.

Any tips on how you market the dual sale to the client? What seems to work for you best?

Thanks.

Generally I would agree with you about not selling two products at the same time. However, you have just saved your new client say $500 on their Supplement. Your best chance of having them reinvest that savings is while they are still excited and feeling warm and fuzzy about the money they just saved. Taking life insurance for a lot of seniors is an emotional decision. Kind of POP (Point Of Purchase) merchandise in a retail store.

After the app is signed and the check has been written simply offer as a suggestion a FE policy. Something like:

You have just saved $40 per month on your Med Supp insurance. Most seniors I talk to do not have a specific policy to take care of their final expenses. The life insurance they have is really intended to go to their children. For only $30 per month I believe we could set you up with a policy that will cover your final expenses and still enable you to leave your loved ones the money you originally intended them to have. You will have your both your health and final expenses covered and still have $10 per month more than you had last month.

One of the biggest advantages to having a specific policy to cover your final expenses is that the person you have designated to take care of the arrangements can take the policy to the funeral home, show them the policy and tell the director that all expenses will be covered by this policy. The insurance company has been notified and the check will be coming shortly.

This means that family members will not have to come up with the cost out of their own pockets until your estate has been settled. Final expense policies are designed to be paid much more quickly than a standard life insurance policy. (For a while I did sell a policy that was designed to pay that quickly.)

That's kind of off the top of my head, I'm sure you can come up with something that sounds a whole lot better.

It is probably the only time I would try to sell two products during one appointment.

I view the fact that your FE company is different than your Supp company as a positive. It shows your client that you are an independent agent with their best interest in mind. You represent several different companies to make sure that your clients always have the very best policy for the most affordable cost.

I buy lists from lead companies. I specify zip code, income (starting around $15,000) and ages 67 to 75.

What kind of "insurance" experience does the owner have? I would love to hear you explain that...

Last I heard "Need-A-Lead" had suspended their mailings due to some "issues"

They (He) is based in Idaho, but you claim he may know the good area's around the country to mail? Does that mean a higher response or more sales?

If he knows good area's to mail, will they guarantee a higher response rate then the average.

I am not a fan of "Flamming" people on message boards, however a lot of agents get most of their information from this site, and your post is full of baseless, unproven, and false information.

If you want to get on here and say you like "Need A Lead" that is fine, but don't blow smoke up everyone's @$$ and tell me the owner has "lots of experience" and "knows good places to mail"

"Learn how to work Kid"... Bubba The Love Sponge (Indiana's own)

My gosh what an attack for simply saying what I had heard. My information is neither false baseless or unproven. I just spoke with Brady (owner of need a Lead) for the first time as a referral from another agent. True fact is he has insurance experience, he has records of zip codes and what kind of response they got. He won't tell you where to mail only if your looking to mail in a zip code, he will tell you what its last response was in that area if he mailed in it. Take a chill pill.

Although I have never tried final expense direct mail I can't help but feel that they will be less effective than the Medicare Supplement ones.

Every location is different, I have found that I get a much higher response with final expense than I do with either Medsupp or combo mailers. If it were an exact science it would be alot easier! Out of 1k medsupp fliers I get about 13-16 back, with FE it's more like 23-27. I sell more FE on the medsupp leads than medsupps. Interesting.

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